Recipe: clara con limón granizado

I came across this cocktail in Pals, in Catalonia, in 30 degree heat, a few weeks back — I saw it on the
menu at the cafe in the square of the old town, and had to give it a go. It’s incredible. Basically, it’s lager mixed with a lemon granita — like a beer slushy. Nothing is better at thirst quenching on a hot day, and best of all it’s quite low in alcohol so no worries about lorrying into it during the daytime :)

This year at Groovefest, our yearly get together/mini-festival, I got to serve
up a few, with great results — they were quite popular. So here’s the recipe!

First off, a day or two in advance, make a batch of lemon granita. I based mine on this recipe which I’ll copy here just in case the original goes away:

Lemon Granita

Serves: about 8

Ingredients:

3-4 lemons

1L water

150g of sugar

Method:

Zest the lemons and set the zest aside. Juice the lemons until you have 150ml juice (you may not need all of them).

Add the water and sugar to a large pan and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 2 minutes, stirring to dissolve the sugar.

Add the lemon juice and zest, remove from the heat and cover. Set aside to cool for 20 minutes.

Strain the mixture into 2 containers that will fit in your freezer and leave to cool to room temperature.

Freeze until the mixture is partially frozen, which should take several hours. (I just left them overnight)

Remove the granita from the freezer and leave at room temperature until you can break it into chunks with a large spoon or fork.

Either transfer to a blender or food processor and blitz, or break it up with a fork. It doesn’t need to be perfectly smooth and snowy — a slushy texture is just right for this drink.

Store in the freezer. Take out 30 minutes before serving and break it up again with a fork.

Clara Con Limón Granizado

To serve: half-fill a half-pint glass with the lemon granita. Pour the beer on top to fill the glass. Stir once or twice to mix. Enjoy!

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.